Gigabyte Geforce GTX 470 Super Overclock Review

When a new graphics card usually launches, we usually end up reviewing the reference version and according to out conversations with vendors, it’s usually this bone stock product that most people buy. On the other hand, overclocked and reengineered editions are great for marketing materials but their sales numbers are somewhat lackluster. This is probably because of their astronomically high prices and the fact that end users can just overclock the less expensive version to levels above that of most pre-overclocked cards.

For board partners a market that likes looking at custom, high performance cards but avoids buying them could spell disaster. However, there are always a few rogue buyers who are always on the lookout for something different and for them Gigabyte created the Super Overclock series.

Truth be told, our experience with the SoC cards has been a bit of a rollercoaster. Some like the GTX 275 SoC and GTX 260 SoC really did push things to the next level in terms of performance and ended up impressing us to no end. The HD 5870 version was extremely good as well but then along came the Gigabyte’s take on HD 5770. It was simply a card that wasn’t fit to wear the Super Overclock branding in any way, shape or form.

Now Gigabyte is going back to where their high end enthusiast series first started: on the NVIDIA side of the fence. The GTX 470 Super Overclock seems to have the perfect combination of features: high clock speeds, the ability to increase its clock speeds even further, a custom heatsink and a component selection that is drool worthy. To entice you even further, this card’s price has just recently been trimmed down to $349 – a minimal premium to pay for a card that brings so much to the table.

After our last outing with a Super Overclock branded product, we feel that Gigabyte has a lot of work to do in order to get this series back on track. Will the GTX 470 version bring back the shine to this once mighty series or will it be another disappointment? Let’s find out.